At Night We Shine
by marcasite
Summary: Planets missing, stars going out, night looming around every corner. Sometimes, I think we make our own darkness. Ten/Rose, Ten II/Rose


**.024 We are darkness. We are the city  
whose brightness blots the stars from night.**

Planets missing, stars going out, night looming around every corner. 'Sometimes, I think we make our own darkness.' She thinks. But work is work, and once again she knows she has a job to do. So, with an exhaustion bordering on despair, she gathers together the fragmented pieces of her life and does what she's been taught to do. Survive, fight, and hope.

She knows she's gotten good at it.

* * *

"Why do you keep working on this day and night? You're going to kill yourself."

She throws him a glance, not bothering to answer his question. She knows he understands but doesn't really support her. She ignores him, wanting to put the final touches on her project before she left for the night. Yes, she worked a lot. Too much, really. But what else was there? She needed this.

"Don't ignore me or I will send Jackie in. You know what'll happen then." Mickey crossed his arms, waiting for a response.

Frustrated, she throws the disk and wires she had been holding, across the table. "We're running out of time, Mickey! Can't you feel it?"

"I do, I know. Rose, we'll figure this out. I'll help you, you know that. I just don't like seeing you like this."

She wants to tell him that this is the only way she knows how to be now.

* * *

So there she goes, hopping, running, and jumping as she moves through lines of time, always missing him by one moment, one adventure, by one turn of a dial. She feels the tug of loneliness and hint of melancholy as she slips in and out Donna Noble's life. She can admit to herself that she would give anything to be in her shoes right now, living that life with him. With everything happening to all their worlds, she can feel a sense of urgency growing as she looks everywhere for him.

She feels the press of time and knows it's running out.

* * *

"I've missed again." She can't keep the disappointment out of her voice. "I was so close this time. I did get to meet her though."

"Yeah? Liked her then?"

"Yeah, I did. I can see why he likes her, there's a lot of courage there." Sighing, she turns away to sit at the table. The walls are white and bleak while the skies outside are dark and terrifying. "How's my Mum?"

"Terrified. She wants to be here with us and Pete's having a hard time keeping her away." Mickey shrugs, "She knows why you're doing this and I think that scares her more than the darkness outside. She thinks you won't come back." He knows, even as he speaks the words, that is she found a way to stay she would, leaving everyone here behind.

"You have to tell her that she needs to stay safe, has to protect Tony. I'll be fine. You should go, Mickey."

"I'm not letting you do this alone. I'll go see that your Mum is safe, but then I'm coming after you." He waved the yellow disk he was holding in the air. "Just see if I don't."

* * *

So she discovers, that even former shopgirls from the Powell Estates can catch a lucky break. Despite the all encompassing darkness, despite the missing stars and lonely nights, despite her own private fears and terrors, she manages to find a way back into his brightness and swears she'll do everything in her power to keep it. In that single moment, she casts off the weight of the past few years and his smile gives her the strength she's been missing all this time.

She think it's finally time something went right for her.

* * *

"Rose, are you ok in there?"

She closes her eyes at the sound of his voice, so achingly familiar yet not. She wraps her hands around her legs and pulls them tighter against her chest. The bathwater is cooling now as she lays her head against her knees. Too many tears, too many unanswered questions.

"Fine, fine. Just relaxing. Be out soon." She tries to throw a lightness into her voice she doesn't feel.

She doesn't know how she ended up here, in the bath of a hotel in Norway. This wasn't exactly the way she had planned for everything to end but she should know by now that nothing ever does. Now, she has a new life and it's up to her to live it the way he wanted her to.

Sighing, she stands and grabs the big, plushy robes the hotel had provided and wraps herself in it. Opening the door, she peers out into the room. He's watching her, waiting for something. She sees the insecurity in his eyes and it overwhelms her. She moves to sit next to him, "Budge over, there's plenty of room."

He slides over to make room and she reaches out for his hand. She closes her eyes at the sensation of his fingers gliding over hers and catches her breath at the memory. Turning to stare at him, she realizes that this could be the same man she fought so hard to get back to and she thinks she understands why.

Smiling, she leans closer to him, "We'll figure this out, you and I. Haven't we been here before?"

Leaning towards her, he whispers, "I missed your smile most of all."

Together, they are the city whose brightness blots the stars from night. She knows that now.


End file.
